What Happens to my CS Account when I Leave?

Effective: March 1, 2024

This page only applies to CS accounts administered by the CS Department.  For information on OIT accounts please refer to the following page: University Accounts

Overview

What happens to your account when you leave the Department depends on your status in the Department at that time. In all cases, having any form of account after your departure is a courtesy and can be rescinded at the discretion of the Department.

In general, when you leave the Department, your account will be in a "transition period." During this time, your account will maintain all its technical capabilities (email service, unix login access, file storage, home web page, etc.) but you will no longer have the right to request additional resources.  While your account is in the transition period, we expect that you will be shedding resources as you will be moving on from the Department.  Please utilize this time to download your files and email for backup and archival purposes.  You are responsible for making copies of any of your files on CS-administered systems (including email files) which you want to have after your account terminates.

When the transition period is over, your full account will be converted to a forwarding account that provides an email and web forwarding service. A forwarding account only has limited capabilities.  It will not have any file storage, email storage, IMAP/POP service, unix login, CAS authentication, or other resources.  It will have:

  • A web portal login, which you can use to set a forwarding email address and a forwarding website address
  • Email forwarding to the email address set via the portal
  • Web forwarding to the web address set via the portal. This will be in the form of a single landing page containing a link to the destination address; any web requests to anything in your homepage page will go to the landing page.  This is implemented as a "404 - Not Found" with a link that points to the web forwarding address you specify.  Humans will see that you moved and update their links to point to your new location.  Search engines will also pick up on your new location and update their indicies in time.  Google has a post on this topic at More on 404.

It is important to emphasize that forwarding accounts are provided to help users be found (via email or the web) as they transition from Princeton to their next permanent location on the Internet. Obtaining and maintaining a forwarding account is subject to the following conditions:

  • All hardware issued to the account holder by the department has been returned to CS Staff,
  • We can successfully contact the account owner by sending email to the account address, and
  • The account stays below our radar (is not compromised, bouncing email to us, or in some other way being abused).

You can find the Forwarding Account Manager using the following link: https://fam.cs.princeton.edu/

CS Graduate Students

CS graduate students who leave the department with a completed degree have a 90-day transition period (starting at their FPO date for Ph.D. students and at the end of their final semester for Masters students) followed by a forwarding account of indefinite duration provided they renew annually.  Student alumni will have an additional capability on their web portal to push their forwarding account expiration date out to 1 year in the future.  Forwarding accounts that expire will cease forwarding email messages and web requests.  Student alumni who login to the web portal within 1 year of expiration can request that the forwarding account be restored.  Once 1 year has passed since the forwarding account expired, the account is purged permanently.

CS Undergraduate Students (AB or BSE)

  • Six-week transition period upon separation from the Department
  • Six months of forwarding service, non-renewable

Non-CS Students with CS Faculty Advisers

  • Six-week transition period upon separation from the Department
  • Six months of forwarding service, non-renewable

Visiting CS Graduate Students (VSRC)

  • Six-week transition period upon separation from the Department
  • One year of forwarding service, non-renewable

CS Faculty

  • One-year transition period upon separation from the Department
  • Two years of forwarding service, non-renewable

Visiting or other non-CS Faculty

  • Six-week transition period upon separation from the Department
  • Two years of forwarding service, non-renewable

CS Postdocs and CS Research Staff

  • 90-day transition period upon separation from the Department
  • Two years of forwarding service, non-renewable

CS Office Staff and CS Technical Staff

  • Six-week transition period upon separation from the Department
  • Two years of forwarding service, non-renewable

"Other" Accounts

"Other" accounts include funded guest accounts and any others not mentioned above.

  • Six-week transition period upon separation from the Department
  • Six months of forwarding service, non-renewable

Note 1: for Account Holders with In-Progress Paper Submissions

Account holders leaving the department, whether by receiving their terminal degree or by reaching the end of their appointment, are no longer supported by the Department and, therefore, no longer entited to the computational resources of the Department.

That said, for account holders already working on bona fide in-process paper submissions (already submitted to a conference or journal) and co-authored by a current CS faculty member, their transition period may be extended to 6 months (instead of the nominal 6 weeks or 90 days).  Their forwarding account period will begin at the end of their extended transition period.  Because appointments have finished, only "light" use of the account is permitted such as text editing.  The CS faculty co-author can request this extension by contacting CS Staff.  If the departed account holder will need resources that exceed "light" use during the extended transition period, the faculty sponsor will need to arrange funding with the Department Manager.

Note 2: for Account Holders with Multiple Relationships to the Department

When an account holder with multiple relationships to the Department departs, their transition period and forwarding account period will be the longest for their given roles.  For example, when a CS undergraduate alumni later becomes a CS faculty member who then leaves their faculty position, their transition period will be 1 year (due to their faculty role) and their forwarding service will continue indefinitely (due to their CS undergraduate alumni status).

Note 3: Emeritus Status

People who transition to emeritus status continue to have a full account.

Note 4: Retirement

Faculty or staff retirees will have an additional capability on their web portal to push their forwarding account expiration date out to 1 year in the future.  Forwarding accounts that expire will cease forwarding email messages and web requests.  Retirees who login to the web portal within 1 year of expiration can request that the forwarding account be restored.  Once 1 year has passed since the forwarding account expired, the account is purged permanently.

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